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Andrew Jackson, Tennessee 
and the Union 



A PAPER 



By albert V. GOODPASTURE 



>,.. ill- e.X 



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Read before the Tennessee Historical Society 
Tuesday, June ii, 1895 




NASHVILLE, TENN. 
BRANDON PRINTING COMPANY 

1895 



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3lJa'03 



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ANDREW JACKSON, TENNESSEE 
AND THE UNION. 



I couple the name of Jacksou with the title of 
this paper, because around him crystallized the 
peculiar political tenets held by the Tennesseans 
of his day. I do not hold that he moulded the 
sentiment of Tennessee. On the contrary, I believe 
the conditions that obtained in her settlement gave 
a common direction to the political opinions of the 
people of the State, and that Andrew Jackson, who 
was a born leader of men, was the recognized expo- 
nent only of those sentiments which were common 
to his countrymen. 

The first settlers of Tennessee were practicall}^ 
cut off from communication with the older settle- 
ments of the country. The great mountains lay 
between them and the mother State, on the east: 
the South was still in the possession of their savage 
enemies ; the far West was but an unexplored 
French province ; and the neighboring North was 
3^et the "dark and bloody ground" where "death 
was in almost every bush, and every thicket con- 
cealed an ambuscade." 

In this isolated condition, for nearly a quarter of 
a century, her undaunted sons defended alone her 



4 ANDRKW JACKvSON, 

scattered settlements against the assaults of a pow- 
erful savage foe, aided and encouraged, as they 
were, by the emissaries of both Spain and Great 
Britain. 

I venture the assertion that no other settlements, 
however remote, within the territorial limits of any 
State of the Union, were ever suffered to defend 
alone so unequal a war — sometimes threatening 
the very existence of the settlements, and a merci- 
less extermination of their people — for so long a 
period, without once receiving armed assistance 
from their mother State. Not only did they defend 
their own settlements, but in the most critical 
period of the Revolution, they won for themselves 
imperishable fame, in the service of the Union, 
east of the mountains. Utterly impotent to grant 
any relief to these settlements in the beginning, 
North Carolina appears to have been criminally 
indifferent to their necessities after the exigencies 
of the revolution had passed and left her more able 
to provide for their safety. 

It can hardly be said that Tennessee fared better 
in this respect, as a Territory of the United States, 
from 1789 to 1796. 

After North Carolina had freed herself of a 
responsibility she had never met, by ceding her 
western settlements to the United States, no federal 
troops ever marched to its defense, even in its most 
dire extremity. The battles of the Northwest 
were fought by the national go\-ernment, and the 
story of its settlement is linked with the names of 



TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. 5 

the great commanders who were sent to defend it. 
The only Territory of the United States that has 
ever been denied the protection of federal arms was 
this cast-away child of North Carolina. Not only 
did its brave pioneers fight its battles alone, but 
they were misunderstood and chided by the federal 
government when they were forced, in their neces- 
sary defense, to pursue the enemy into his own 
country and administer to him the chastisement 
his merciless cruelties so richh^ merited. 

This absolute and complete self-reliance, while it 
made the tragic story of her settlement more touch- 
ing and more heroic than that of any other State 
of the Union, produced in the first settlers of Ten- 
nessee a singularly bold, hardy and patriotic people. 
They were, in the main, either pioneers or soldiers ; 
that indomitable race of men who planted civiliza- 
tion in the wilderness — the heroes of the axe and 
the rifle — or the patriotic officers and soldiers who 
constituted the continental line of North Carolina 
in the revolutionary war. 

But Tennessee received a curious compensation 
from North Carolina for the painful neglect she 
had suffered. It proved, indeed, a rich heritage. 
With a bankrupted treasury and an impoverished 
people, it was the policy of North Carolina to con- 
stitute her western territory a fund to reward the 
^' signal bravery and persevering zeal " of her ofiicers 
and soldiers in the revolutionary war. The Act of 
Cession provided that the land laid off to the ofiicers 
and soldiers of her continental line should still 



6 ANDREW JACKSON, 

enure to their benefit ; and if it should prove insuffi- 
cient to make good the several provisions for them, 
the deficiency might be supplied out of any other 
part of the Territory. And so liberally did she 
compensate her war-worn veterans out of this 
"fund," that more than 12,000,000 acres of the 
choice lands of the State were consumed in their 
pajanent. Not only was the military reservation 
exhausted, but practicalU' all her other lands sup- 
posed to be fit for cultivation that had not already 
been taken up on the occupancy and pre-emption 
claims of the hardy pioneers, whose rights were 
equalh^ protected by the Act of Cession, were like- 
wise consumed in satisfying warrants issued for 
military services. The result was that the great 
body of the land in Tennessee was originally 
granted, either under the occupancy claim of the 
pioneer settler, or upon the militar}' warrant of the 
revolutionary soldier.'^' 

Could there be a more favorable foundation for 
the development of the high degree of martial 
spirit and patriotic sentiment that has won for 
Tennessee the proud appellation of "Volunteer 
State"? 

Tennessee was the first Territory of the United 
States to be admitted into the Union as a State, and 
so far as I know, is the onl}^ one to assume that 
relation with any degree of reluctance. The vote 



* The Memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee 
to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in 
Congress assembled — Acts of i<S37-3S, p. 443 ei seq. 



TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 7 

of the Territory was, perhaps, two to one in favor 
of admission, but the expression of those counties 
bordering on the Cumberland river was nearly five 
to one against it/" This grew out of the question 
concerning the free navigation of the Mississippi 
river. As it appeared to the Cumberland settle- 
ments, their country was hardly worth the priva- 
tions, toil and suffering it had cost to win it, if the 
claim of the Spanish government to the exclusive 
right to navigate the Mississippi river was to be 
tolerated. And only less monstrous than the 
Spanish claim itself was its proposed concession 
for a period of twenty 3^ears, in the treaty negotiated 
by Mr. Ja^^ The Mississippi river furnished the 
only practicable means by which they could reach 
the markets of the world ; and the possibility of 
that way being closed, even for a limited time, pro- 
duced the highest degree of political discontent. 
Some idea of their sentiments on this subject may 
be obtained from the constitution adopted in 1796, 
after the Mississippi river had been opened by the 
treaty of the preceding year. It declares, " That an 
equal participation of the free navigation of the 
Mississippi is one of the inherent rights of the citi- 
zens of this State ; it can not, therefore, be conceded 
to au}^ prince, potentate, power, person or persons, 
whatever." 

The sentiment of Kentucky on this question was 
not different from that of Tennessee. Two of the 



'See taliulaled vote in Ramsey's History of Tennessee, p. 64S. 



8 ANDREW JACKSON, 

most romantic characters who figured in the earlj- 
history of Tennessee, whose names and whose fame 
are inseparately linked together, were John Sevier 
(i 745-1815) and Isaac Shelby (i 750-1826). Bound 
together by the closest ties of friendship, they were 
also united in the patriotic service of their country. 
Together they had planned the campaign and shared 
the glorious victory of Kings Mountain. Together, 
and by name, they were called on b}^ the mother 
State, to lead their brave followers again across the 
mountain. And together they received the thanks 
of North Carolina, for their services to the common 
cause, at a time when less brave and resourceful 
men, with even greater means, might well have 
feared for the safety of their own firesides. Isaac 
Shelby was appointed one of the commissioners to 
lay off the land reserved by the State of North 
Carolina, for the officers and soldiers of her conti- 
nental line, in 1783, and the work of the commis- 
sion having been completed, he moved to the State 
of Kentucky, and was elected the first Governor of 
that commonwealth . Even Governor Shelby refused 
to interpose his authority, in 1794, to prevent an 
armed expedition against New Orleans and the 
Spanish possessions. 

It may be that the large vote against the applica- 
tion by the State of Tennessee for admission into 
the Union, is to be accounted for on the same theory, 
upon which, some years afterwards, Governor Shelb}' * 
explained his position — that is, that it was intended 
to hasten the action of the government in effecting 



TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 9 

a treaty for the navigation of the Mississippi river.'--^ 
If so, their purpose was soon accomplished, as Spain 
conceded the free navigation of the Mississippi 
that very year. In the meantime, however, upon 
this question, as well as upon the ever present 
Indian problem, which meant their very existence 
to the people of the Southwestern Territory, the 
administration of the government under the Feder- 
alist party, if not positively antagonistic, was cer- 
tainly very unfavorable to their views. 

But with the admission of the State into the 
Union, the control of the federal government passed 
into the hands of the Republican or Democratic 
party, whose political principles were entirely in 
accord with the sentiments of the people of Tennes- 
see. They were prepared, therefore, to support Mr. 
Madison in the second war with Great Britian ; and 
at the first sound of the tocsin, Gen. Andrew Jack- 
son, with 2500 Tennessee volunteers, offered their 
services to the government. The martial spirit of 
the heroic old pioneers and soldiers was on fire, and 
Gen. Jackson but expressed their sentiments when 
he offered to march, if necessary, "to the line of 
Canada, and there offer his aid to the army of his 
country, and endeavor to wipe off the stain to our 
military character, occasioned by the recent disas- 
ters." 

The massacre of Fort Minis touched another 
responsive chord in the hearts of the old pioneers 



* Butler's History of Kentucky (Ed. 1834) page 228. 



lO ANDREW JACKSON, 

who had suffered so much at the savage hands of 
their Indian foes. The feeling was expressed by 
Gov. Sevier, then in Congress, when he wrote : " I 
hope in God, that, as the rascals have begun, we 
shall now have it in our power to pay them for the 
old and for the new." At this juncture the State 
of Tennessee, upon its own responsibility, made a 
call for 3500 volunteers, in addition to the 1500 
men alread}^ enlisted in the service of the United 
States. 

On the whole, the war of 181 2-15 was the most 
agreeable event that could have happened to the 
people of Tennessee. This is a condition worthy 
of note, as it had an important influence on the 
conduct of the State and the history of the Union. 
The first effect was, that the disunion sentiments 
of the Federalists of New England, that culminated 
in the celebrated Hartford convention, became the 
most unpopular and odious that the loyal people of 
Tennessee could conceive. At this ver}^ time, 
Willie Blount (1767-183 5) then governor of Ten- 
nessee, predicted that "that Convention will never 
act with open doors ; neither will they let the world 
know any thing of their proceedings'"'' — a singu- 
larly accurate conclusion. But whatever else it 
may have done, it performed the funeral obsequies 
of the old Federalist party. As soon as Gen. Jack- 
son and his Tennessee volunteers had "wiped off 
the stain to our militar}^ character" at New Orleans, 



"'•'Manuscript letter in my possession. 



TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. n 

which was almost simultaneous with the treaty of 
peace with Great Britain, the Federalist party was 
dead. 

The army that enlisted under General Jackson in 
this war contained the very flower of Tennessee 
chivalry, and was, beyond doubt, the grandest body 
of volunteers that ever took the field in America. 
Their commander became President of the United 
States, and three'-' others of them were afterwards 
prominent and worthy aspirants for that distin- 
guished honor. Of governors and senators and 
congressmen, the number is absolutely astounding. 
These men, with many of their neighbors, became 
scattered over most of the southern and southwest- 
ern States, where, in the main, they propagated 
the ideas and sentiments the}^ had imbibed in Ten- 
nessee, multiplying many fold the influence of that 
State. The first two Senators from Missouri were 
Tennesseans. The first Governor, the first two 
Senators, and the first Congressman from Arkansas ; 
the liberator of Texas, who was the first President 
of the Republic, and one of her first United States 
Senators after she was admitted into the Union ; 
the first Governor of Louisiana, and the first 
Governor"!" and one of the first Senators from Cali- 
fornia, were all Tennesseans. 

Thomas H. Benton (i 782-1858) began the prac- 
tice of the law at Franklin, Tennessee, and was a 



■' Hugh L. White, Thomas H. Benton and Sam Houston, 
t Peter H. Burnett. 



12 ANDREW JACKSON, 

member of the Senate of that State in 1809. He 
was one of the earliest friends and supporters of 
General Jackson, having been aide-de-camp on his 
staff, and also the Colonel of a regiment of Ten- 
nessee volunteers in the war of 181 2. In 181 5 he 
moved to the Territory of Missouri, and became one 
of her first United States Senators when she was 
admitted into the Union in 1820. His associate in 
the Senate was David Barton (1785-1S37) who was 
also a Tennessean. 

In 1828 there was still but one political party in 
the United States, Jackson, Clay, Crawford and 
Adams all adhering, nominally, to the Republican 
or Democratic party. In this situation Mr. Ben- 
ton, whose wife was a niece of Mrs. Clay, supported 
Mr. Clay for the presidency. But when the elec- 
tion was thrown into the House of Representatives 
he became the ardent supporter of General Jack- 
son, in which he never wavered or faltered after- 
wards until the day of his death. Even as late as 
1856 he supported James Buchanan for the presi- 
dency against his own son-in-law, John C. Fremont, 
on the ground of his confidence that if Mr. 
Buchanan were elected he would restore the prin- 
ciples of the Jackson administration. 

Sam Houston (i 793-1 863) grew to manhood in 
Blount County, Tennessee, and in 181 3 enlisted as 
a volunteer in the service of the United States, was 
promoted to be an ensign, and distinguished him- 
self in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, under General 
Jackson. He began the study of law at Nashville 



TENNKSSEE AND THE ITNION. i 3 

in 1818, was elected District Attorney in i8i9,was 
a Representative in Congress in 1823 and 1825 (^^"^ 
which position he had the honor of appointing 
Mathew F. Maury (i 806-1 873), one of his constit- 
uents, to a cadetship in the National Naval Acad- 
emy), and was Governor of the State in 1827. ^^^ 
1829 ^^^ resigned the office of Governor and retired 
to the great West in the most dramatic manner. 
In the West he became the great liberator of Texas, 
the hero of San Jacinto, the first President of the 
Lone Star Republic, and when she was admitted 
into the Union in 1847, was one of her first United 
States Senators. He was always a devoted personal 
and political friend of General Jackson, whom he 
saw laid to rest at the Hermitage. He was elected 
Governor of Texas in 1859, but had his office 
declared vacant when the State seceded from the 
Union in 1861. 

Clement C. Clay ( 1 789-1866) grew up in Grainger 
County, Tennessee, was educated at the old Blount 
College (University of Tennessee) at Knoxville, 
studied law under the distinguished statesman and 
jurist, Hugh L- White, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1809. In 181 1 he removed to Alabama, and was 
Chief Justice of the State at the age of thirt}^ years. 
From 1829 to 1836 he was a Representative in 
Congress, and was a conspicuous defender of the 
leading measures of General Jackson's administra- 
tion. In 1835, "^vben the Democratic party split on 
the election of Jackson's successor, Clay was elected 
Governor on the Van Buren ticket, in opposition to 



14 ANDREW J ACKvSON, 

the ticket headed by his old friend, Judge White. 
His opponent was another distinguished Tennes- 
seean, Enoch Parsons (1776-1846), who, as a mem- 
ber of the Tennessee Legislature, had drawn and 
introduced the bill calling for 3500 volunteers for 
the relief of the Mississippi Territor}-, on the mas- 
sacre of Fort Minis, in 1S13, and who with others, 
had endorsed Governor Blount's note for $20,000 to 
equip them. In 1839 ^^- Clay was elected to the 
United States Senate, and served to the close of the 
extra session of 1841, when he resigned on account 
of ill health. 

What Mr. Hallum calls the reigning famil}' in 
i\rkansas was composed almost wholly of Tennes- 
seans. The Conway and Sevier families were 
among the early pioneers of Tennessee. Thomas 
Conway was Speaker of the Senate, while John 
Sevier was Governor of the short lived State of 
Franklin, while his brother, George Conwa}^, was 
the first Major General of the Tennessee State 
Militia, and was the immediate predecessor in that 
position and intimate personal friend of General 
Andrew Jackson. 

James Sevier Conwav (i 798-1855), a son of 
Thomas Conway, went to Arkansas about 1820, 
and upon the admission of the State into the Union, 
became her first Governor. 

Ambrose H. Sevier (i 801-1848) was the son of 
John Sevier and Susan Conway. His father was 
the only son who survived the distinguished old 
hero of Point Pleasant and Kings Mountain, Val- 



TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 15 

entitle Sevier, whose career closed in so much sad- 
ness and pathos. He went to Arkansas Math his 
cousins, the Conways, where he was first clerk and 
then a member and speaker of Territorial House 
of Representatives. 

His cousin, Henry W. Conway (1793-1827), a 
native Tennessean and protege of General Jack- 
son, who, as a mere boy, had served under him in 
the war of 181 2, after having been elected in 1823 
Territorial Delegate from Arkansas to Congress, 
and re-elected in 1825 and 1827, was killed in a 
duel with Robert Crittenden, and Mr. Sevier was 
elected as his successor, a position he continued to 
hold until the admission of the State into the Union 
in 1836. 

In that year he was elected one of the first United 
States Senators from Arkansas, and continued in 
that office until 1848, when he resigned his seat, 
and under appointment of President Polk, nego- 
tiated, in connection with Judge Clifford, the treaty 
of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, b}^ which we acquired our 
vast possessions from Mexico. 

The other Senator elected by the State of Arkan- 
sas in 1836 was William S. Fulton (i 795-1844). 
In 181 6, Gov. Fulton went into the law office of 
the celebrated Tennessee advocate and statesman, 
Felix Grund}^, and the following year began the 
practice of his profession in Gallatin. In 181 8 he 
was appointed Secretary to General Jackson, and 
served in that capacity during the Seminole war. 
By appointment of President Jackson, he was Gov- 



1 6 ANDREW JACKvSON, 

ernor of the Territory of Arkansas, and upon her 
admission into the Union was elected one of her 
first Senators, and held the position until his death 
in 1844. 

Archibald Yell (i 797-1847) was the first member 
of Congress from Arkansas. He was a typical 
Tennessean. As a boy he was a Captain under 
General Jackson in the Creek war, where he bore 
himself so gallantly as to attract the attention of 
his great commander. He also served through the 
Seminole war. 

He was practicing law in Fa3^etteville, Tennes- 
see, when, in 1832, President Jackson appointed 
him a Territorial Judge in Arkansas. He cher- 
ished an ambition to be the first Governor of the 
State, but was shut out by a provision of the Con- 
stitution requiring a four 3^ears' residence to make 
him eligible. But he was elected her first Repre- 
sentative in Congress. He declined a re-election 
to Congress, and was elected Governor in 1840. At 
the request of the State Democratic Convention in 
1844, he resigned the ofBce of Governor to enter 
the contest against Judge Walker for Congress. 
He was elected, but in 1846 he resigned his seat in 
Congress to take command of the Arkansas troops 
in the Mexican war, and fell gallantl}^ leading his 
men at Buena Vista, closing his career, as he had 
begun it, in the military service of his country. 

But I can not give even a brief account of all 
the distinguished statesmen sent out from Tennes- 
see. Among the Senators I will mention Wni. C. C. 



TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 17 

Claiborne (1775-1S17), an old pioneer of Tennes- 
see, who served with Andrew Jackson in the con- 
vention that framed the Constitution of the State, 
and succeeded him as a Representative in Congress 
when the latter was elected to the Senate. He was 
the first Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and 
was elected Governor of Louisiana when that State 
was admitted into the Union in 181 2, and was one 
of her United States Senators elect when he died 
in 181 7. 

Alexander Porter (i 786-1844), a member of the 
Senate from Louisiana, was a member of the Nash- 
ville bar, who moved to Louisiana at the urgent 
solicitation of Andrew Jackson. Alexander Barrow 
( 1 801-1846) was a native Tennessean who began 
the practice of law in Nashville, and afterwards 
moved to Louisiana, where he was elected to the 
United States Senate. Robert H. Adams (1792- 
1830) was one of the most gifted men this country 
has produced. He was a native of East Tennessee, 
who moved to Nashville, and thence to Mississippi, 
where, after attaining the highest eminence in his 
profession, he was elected to the United States Sen- 
ate, but died the same year. Stephen Adams 
(1804-1857) came to Tennessee with his parents 
when he was three years old, and was a member of 
the Senate of that State in 1830, and moved to Mis- 
sissippi in 1834, where, after being a Circuit Judge 
and member of Congress from the State at large, in 
1852, he defeated Jefferson Davis for a seat in the 
United States Senate, made vacant by the resigna- 



1 8 ANDREW JACKSON, 

tion of Henry S. Foote, who was elected Governor 
that \^ear. He now sleeps in Elmwood Cemetery 
at Memphis. William McKendree Gwin (1805- 
1S85) was a native of Sumner Count}', Tennessee, 
moved to Mississippi, where he was appointed 
United States Marshal by President Jackson; was 
elected to Congress ; was appointed to superintend 
the erection of the Custom House at New Orleans 
b}^ President Polk; went to California, was a mem- 
ber of her Constitutional Convention, and when she 
was admitted to the Union, was one of her first 
Senators, which position he continued to hold up 
to the war. 

Among the Congressmen she furnished to her 
sister States may be mentioned the distinguished 
soldier, Wm. Barksdale (1821-1863), a native of 
Rutherford Count}^ ; Judge H. S. Bennett (1807-), 
who was born in Williamson County; the great 
criminal law3'er, Reuben Davis (181 3- 1873) ; W. S. 
Featherstone (182 1-); Wm. M. Gwin, afterwards 
United States Senator from California; Benj. D. 
Nabers, and Daniel B. Wright, all of the State of 
Mississippi. From Alabama there was Geo. S. 
Houston (1811-1879), a native of Williamson 
Count}', who was eighteen years a member of the 
Federal House of Representatives, and chairman, 
successively, of the Ways and Means and Judi- 
ciary Committees of that body; Gen. Geo. W. 
Crabb (-1847), ^ brother of Judge Henry Crabb, 
of the Supreme Court of Tennessee; Felix G. 
McConnell (-1846); Sydenham Moore and 



TENNESSEK AND THE UNION. 



19 



Alexander White. But I will not pursue the list 
further."^' 

The old Federalist party having died, as I have 
said, in 18 15, James Monroe was elected and re- 
elected President, practically without opposition. 
In the meantime Jackson began to be spoken of 
for his successor. But he was not then at the head 
of any political part}^ All the candidates were 
professed Republicans or Democrats. Jackson 
received a plurality of the popular and electoral 
votes, but was not elected. The House of Repre- 
sentatives chose John Quincy Adams, and Henrj^ 
Clay was appointed his Secretary of State. 

At the very beginning of his administration, in 
his inaugural address, and in his first message to 
Congress, President Adams manifested his predilec- 
tions for the old Federalist doctrines. Clay's for- 
tunes were cast with his. Crawford was an invalid. 
Andrew Jackson, from that time, became the 
acknowledged leader of the Democratic party. 
Thenceforth the old Tennesseans, wherever found, 
with few exceptions, rallied to his support. There 
was never a division in Tennessee until 1S36, when 
the Democratic part}- split on President Jackson's 
successor. Jackson favored Van Buren, and Hugh 
L. White, one of the grandest men, take him all in 



* See "Parton's Jackson," "Roosevelt's Bentou," "Bruce's Hous- 
ton," "Foote's Bench and Bar of the Southwest." "Garrett's Public 
Men of Alabama," "Lanmau's Dictionary of Congress," ".Sparks' 
Memories of Fifty Years," "Elmwood Cemetery," and "Halhim's 
Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas." 



20 ANDREW JACKSON, 

all, this State has ever produced, ran in opposition, 
and carried the State. The breach was permanent. 
The State was never again carried by the National 
Democracy until she developed, in Andrew John- 
son, another great Democratic leader, second onl}^ 
to iVndrew Jackson, who utterl}' routed the Whigs 
in 1854, and opened the way for the victor}^ of 
Buchanan in 1856. 

In 1829 Jackson was elected President b}-^ an 
overwhelming majorit}^, and commenced the most 
important administration this country has ever 
witnessed, to onl\' one event in which it is ni}" pur- 
pose to allude. 

I have alread\^ contrasted the lo^^alty of Tennes- 
see with the disunion sentiments of the Eastern 
States in 1815. At the threshold of his adminis- 
tration President Jackson was confronted with sim- 
ilar conditions in the South. I refer to the doctrine 
of nullification, of which John C. Calhoun was the 
great exponent. Calhoun had not broken with the 
President at this time, and Robert Y. Hayne was 
one of his most intimate friends and partisan sup- 
porters. 

But President Jackson was equal to the emer- 
gency. As earl}' as the 13th of April, 1830, at 
the Jefferson banquet, he electrified the country 
with this toast: " Our Federal Union: it must be 
preserved." And this was the feeling of all his 
old Tennessee friends who had expressed with 
him their horror of the disloyalty of the East in 
1815. 



TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. 21 

I do not care to go into the question of nullifica- 
tion, as it arose in 1832. But we owe it to Jackson 
and the Tennessee influence that disunion senti- 
ments, although springing up this time among a 
class of his own supporters, was again silenced, and 
the doctrine of nullification forever put to rest. 

I believe I quote the venerable President of our 
State Historical Society correctly, in substance, in 
the statement that it was Andrew Jackson who made 
possible the preservation of the Union in 1861-65. 
And why may it not be so ? Were not his most 
devoted followers the warmest friends of the Union ? 
Where was Thomas H. Benton when the dark 
clouds began to appear above the political horizon ? 
After an honorable service of thirty years he lost 
his seat in the United States Senate ; and when 
elected to Congress from his own district he was 
defeated for a re-election, as he was likewise, in 
1856, defeated for Governor of Missouri on account 
of his bold, outspoken union sentiments. And he 
died still proclaiming the same devotion to the 
Union he was wont to applaud in Andrew 
Jackson. 

Then, there was Sam Houston, the idol of the 
State of Texas, who, even at her behest, refused his 
assent to her separation from the Union. He had 
been elected Governor in 1859, and when his State 
seceded he was deposed from his office because he 
still adhered to the Union. 

When the war came on but two Southern mem- 
bers kept their seats in the United States Senate. 



2 2 ANDREW JACKSON, 

Tliej^ were both Tennesseans. Wm. K. Sebastian 
(i8i 2-1864) was born in Hickman Count}^, Ten- 
nessee, and was educated at Columbia College. He 
went to Arkansas in 1835, ^'^^^ ^^'^^ elected District 
Attorne}^, Circuit Judge, Supreme Judge, and in 
1848 was appointed, and subsequently three times 
elected, to the United States Senate. He was 
expelled in 1861, but the act of expulsion was 
rescinded in 1878. The other was Andrew Johnson 
(1808-1876), of Tennessee, the disciple of Andrew 
Jackson, who, in February, 1861, said from his 
place in the Senate : "I believe that if Andrew 
Jackson were President of the United States this 
glorious Union of ours would still be intact. Per- 
haps it might be jarred a little in some places, but 
not sufficiently to disturb the harmony and general 
concord of the whole. That is ni}^ opinion. I do 
not sa}^ it to disparage others, but I believe that 
this would have been the case if he had been Pres- 
ident, pursuing the policy which I feel certain he 
would have pursued in such an emergenc}^" He 
was more fortunate than Sebastian, in that his sin- 
cerit}^ and honesty of purpose were never ques- 
tioned. He not onl}^ served out his term, but was 
elected Vice President of the United States while 
his State was still out of the Union. 

Tennessee herself went out of the Union in 1861, 
as she went into it in 1796, wath great reluctance. 
Her leading public men, those who had grown up 
under the influence that surrounded Andrew Jack- 
son, such men as Cave Johnson, John Bell and 



TENNESvSEE AND THE UNION. 



23 



Andrew Ewing, earnestly opposed secession in 
i860, and an overwhelming majority of her people 
voted for the Union when the qnestion was first 
snbmitted to them in Febrnar}-, 1861, but it was 
only when war became flagrant, when blood had 
been shed, when armies were in the field, when 
there was no other alternative left bnt to fight, 
either for their own section against the Union, or 
for the Union against their own section, that they 
chose the former conrse. 




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